Motion-indicating device



Feb. 4, 1930. R MAYNE 1,745,500

MOTION INDICATING DEVICE Filed Feb. 15. 1928 Patented Feb. 4, 1930UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROBERT MAYNE, OF AKRON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TOTHE B. F. GOODRICH COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEWYORK MOTION-INDICATING DEVICE Application filed February 13, 1928.Serial No. 253,922.

This invention relates especially to devices for manifesting breakage ofa moving strip of material such as a cord being fed to a rubber coatingcalender, a loom, or the like, and in a broader aspect it relates tomeans. for manifesting the condition of movement or rest of any bodymounted for rectilinear, rotary or other movement.

The present embodiment of the invention has been designed especially foruse with apparatus utilizing or operating upon continuous strands ofmaterial, to provide simple and positive means for actuating a visibleor audible warning signal which preferably is of an electric type, uponthe breakage of any one of the strands or the arrival of a trailing endthereof.

The invention also is applicable to rotary apparatus wherein it isdesired to break an electric circuit when the speed of rotation fallsbelow a determinate speed.

The chief object of the invention is to provide an improved device ofthe character described which will be dependent upon movement of theobject with which it is associated, and not merely upon the tension of astrand of material, for example, so that a dependable indication ofactual movement will be afiorded. Further objects are simplicity ofconstruction, small size, positive operation, and avoidance of exposedparts subject to effecting false indications as a result of unintendedcontacts or movements thereof. Other objects will be manifest in thefollowing description.

In attaining these objects in the preferred embodiments of my inventionI provide a signal system including an element adapted to assume andremain in one position in response to and during movement of an adjacentmember and to assume a different position when the adjacent memberbecomes motionless, for actuating the signal system, as by opening andclosing an electric circuit.

Of the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of theinvention, and a strand of material associated therewith.

Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinalsection of the same with electricalcontact material therein in make condition.

Fig. 3 is a similar view with the contact material therein in breakcondition.

Fig. 4 is a diagram of an electrical circuit showing the use of theinvention in association with visible and audible warning signals.

Fig. '5 is a sectional view, similar to those of Figs. 2 and 3, of amodified structure in make condition.

Referring to the drawing, 10 is a housing of dielectric material whichmay be suitably mounted upon a machine, and 11 is a cover therefor oflike material. The housing 10 preferably comprises a unitary structureformed with a generally rectangular internal recess 12 and an arcuaterecess 13 which is centrally positioned with relation to the bottomhofsaid recess 12 in communication therewit A pair of end-threadedbinding-posts 14, 14 comprising the electric terminals of a switch havetheirlower ends threaded into the housing structure within the recess 12at opposite ends of the recess 13. Their upper ends extend throughrespective apertures in the cover 11 and are provided with washers 15,15 and nuts 16, 16 by which the terminalclips of electricalconductor-wires 17, 17 are secured to the respective posts, said nutsalso scrvin to hold the cover 11 securely in place upon t e housing 10.,

J ournaled in the side-walls of the housing 10 and extending outwardlytherefrom at one side thereof is a shaft 18, and a metal disk 19 havinga knurled peripheral face is secured to said shaft within the recess 12,a portion of the disk extending into the arcuate recess 13. Outside thehousing 10 the shaft 18 is provided with a peripherally grooved sheave19 (Fig. 1) adapted, in the embodiment here shown, to be driven by thetravel of a strand of material 20 passing around the same, and to becomestationary upon breakage of the strand at a more advance part of thestrand or upon arrival of the trailing end of the strand.

For making electrical contact between the posts 14, I provide a fluidelectrical conductor 21 of suitable material such as mercury and of aquantity suflicient normally to fill the arcuate recess 13 and the lowerpart of the recess 12 and thus electrically to connect the said posts.The posts 14 are made of a material such as steel, adapted to resist thecorrosive effect of the mercury, and the latter preferably is coveredwith a thin film of alcohol to protect it from oxidation or from theeffect of corrosive fumes in the atmosphere.

In the operation of the device, when the disk 19 is rotated the level ofthe mercury will rise at the upwardly moving side of the disk and belowered at the downwardly moving side of the disk, as shown in Fig. 3,by the impelling force of the rotating disk, so that the mercury iswithdrawn from contact with the post 1d at the downwardly moving side ofthe disk and the electrical contact between the two posts is broken, thefluid conductor then resuming its normal level whenever the disk stopsrotating, as in the case of breakage or running out of the cord. Theaction of the liquid 21 under the impetus of the disk 19 may be likenedto a standing wave, surge or swell which effects a local elevating ofthe fluid in one region and a corresponding lowering or depressing ofthe fluid in another region, and produces an obliquity of the surface ofthe fiuidwhich alters the relation of the latter to the electricalterminals.

My invention is not wholly limited to a device adapted to be driven by acord, as the device may be adapted for the driving of the shaft 18 byother objects whose state of movement or non-movement it is desired tohave manifested.

In Fig. 4 is diagrammatically shown a typical electrical circuitemploying a plurality of the switch devices for actuating respectivevisible signals and an audible signal common to the devices. As showntherein, a plurality of the switch devices, each designated as a wholeby the numeral 22, normally in break condition due to the rotation oftheir disks, have one terminal of each device connected with a conductor23 leading f r om one side of a suitable source of current a1 1 d havethe other terminal of each device connectedwithaterminalof acorresponding vis ible signal such as one of a set of lamps 25, 25, theother side of each lamp being connected with a common wire 26 connectedthrough the winding of a solenoid relay 27 and through a wire 28,. tothe source of current. The armature 29 of the relay 2'? is adapted, whenactuated, to close a break in a separate circuit 30 having interposedtherein an aud ible warning signal such as an an electric bell 31, thusthe construction is such that when any one of the switch devices 22 isclosed, by stopping of its disk, the lamp individual to the device willbe lighted and the bell, common to the several devices, will be causedto ring.

In Fig. 5 is shown a modified switch which is in "break condition whenits disk is motionless and in make condition when the disk is rotated inthe direction indicated by the arrow thereon. In this embodiment thehousing 10 is formed with a rectangular re-' cess 12 and an arcuaterecess 13, the latter being positioned at one end of the rectangularrecess, so that the two terminal posts 14, 1 1 may be mounted at one endof the recess 12 at the same side of the rotatable disk 19, as shown.The conductor material 21 is of such quantity as to recede entirely'intothe recess 13 and thus break the connection between the posts 1 1when the disk 19 is motionless, but to be caused, by rotationof the diskin the direction indicated by the arrow, to assume the position shown inthe figure and thus to contact with both posts 14 and provide anelectrical connection between them.

Various modifications are possible within the scope of my invention asdefined in the appended claims.

I claim:

'1. A motion-indicating device comprising a rotary member adapted to bedriven by the object of which the state of motion is to be manifestedand a body of mercury having its upper surface normally of unitary,plane form so associated with the rotary member as to be caused toassume the form of a standing wave when the rotary member is rotating.

2. A motion-indicating device comprising a pair of spaced-apartelectrical terminals, a fluid conductor element having its upper surfacenormally of unitary plane form adapted to make and break connectionbetween said terminals, and a rotary disk operating upon said conductorelement for causing it to change its operative relation to saidterminals.

3. A device as defined in claim 2 in which the conductor element is heldin contact with the electrical terminals by gravity when the rotarymember is stationary.

4;. A motion-indicating device comprising a housing, a pair ofelectrical terminals therein, a fluid electrical conductor thereinhaving its upper surface normally of unitary, plane form, and arotatable member partly immersed in the latter and adapted, whenrotated, to modify the liquid surface thereof to change its relation tosaid terminals.

5. A motion-indicating device comprising a rotary member adapted tobedriven by the object of which the state of motion is to be manifestedand a fluid, electrically conductive contactor element having its uppersurface normally of unitary, plane form so associated with the rotarymember as to be driven by slipping contact therewith and thus adaptedlto assume a surface obli uity when the rotary member is rotating ananother position when the rotary member is at rest.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 6th day of February,1928.

ROBERT MAYNE

